Feedback Focus

1. Reading Out Loud

The only problem I have with reading out loud is you cannot read out loud in a public place. I often find myself nestled in the Youngblood Energy library and if I read aloud in there other students might give me mean glares. On the other hand if I am at home or a place other people are not near me reading out loud does tend to help me focus on what I am reading. Now that I think about it, when I read a passage or sentence that is confusing or difficult to understand I catch myself reading it out loud to help me comprehend it.  What I acknowledged most while reading "Why Dog and Cat are Enemies" out loud is the language used. Language may not even be the right word but more the arrangement or sentence structure made you think about the sentence a little more.

Focus by Dimitris Kalogeropoylos from Flickr

      2. Copy- and- Delete

This is probably my favorite technique of all three. It seems to take a little longer than reading out loud and using a timer but much more affective, at least for me, when it comes to comprehending what I am reading. I catch myself reading but not paying attention to what I am reading more times than I would like to admit but stopping at the end of every paragraph to jot down notes is a great way to catch myself falling into a habit of not focusing on what I am reading. Even if I do fall into that familiar trap I will catch it at the end of a paragraph and not a few pages in. For this particular reading, "What Makes the Lightning" stopping to take notes at the end of every single paragraph may have been a little extreme but when reading a book I think at least stopping at the end of the page would even be extremely helpful. 

    3. Use a Timer

First, "Midterm Madness" is a hilarious story! Savannah did a great job telling a story based on the Ramayana in modern days. As far as the timer technique goes, it is my least favorite of the three. I found myself constantly looking at the clock to see how much longer I needed to read. This caused me to actually pay less attention to what I was reading than if I just read and did not use any of the three techniques. Maybe this technique would work better with reading novels that I find myself invested in and forget what time it is. It would be nice to have that ten minute reminder to write important events down that occurred in the reading during the allotted time.